Military News

Monday, February 22, 2016

The following is a situational update from Commodore,
Military Sealift Command Europe-Africa; Commander, Task Force 63, Capt. Heidi
Agle. It was prepared after Ghanaian and coalition partners tracked and trailed
a potential pirate vessel through Ghana’s territorial waters 12-14 February.

09 Feb French Embassy to Ghana began to pass Spearhead
(through the Ghana MOC and U.S. Embassy) info on a potential pirate vessel
transiting west through the Ghanaian EEZ enroute to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire to
set up for potential piracy cases.

09-10 FebSpearhead
working with the Ghanaian Western Naval Command (WNC) Maritime Operations
Center (MOC), French and U.S. Embassy attempted to locate the M/V Smooft Bonds
while it was transiting west through the Ghanaian EEZ with NEGRES.

11 FebFrench Embassy
notified Spearhead through Ghana WNC MOC the suspect pirate vessel (Smooft
Bonds) was loitering south of the port of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire setting up to
attack a vessel in vicinity of the port.

12 FebFrench Embassy
notified Spearhead through Ghana WNC MOC the suspect pirate vessel (Smooft
Bonds) attacked the M/T Maximus 11 Feb at 2000z, 76 NM South of Abidjan.French Embassy confirmed the presence of
pirates onboard the M/T MAXIMUS and state the pirates are trying to sail back
to Nigeria.Fifteen crew safe in citadel
room, five crew did not make it to the citadel room.

12 Feb2300Z based on
dead reckoning and positions passed by the French Embassy, Spearhead sighted
what it believed to be M/T Maximus on radar at 40NM.

13 Feb1000Z closed
to the directed standoff distance of 3NM of M/T Maximus in order to visually
ID.Unable to confirm ship name due to
distance and haze.Able to confirm ship
matched description in photos. High confidence that vessel was M/T Maximus.

14 FebNaa Gbewaa on
scene with M/T Maximus and intends to query and escort vessel through Ghana EEZ
for handoff to Togo Navy at EEZ boundary.

***This case highlights the successful communications
between Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo Embassies/MOCs as well as coordination
with their Navy and USNS Spearhead.The
French Embassy tracked the vessel for at least a week prior and attempted to
coordinate an interdiction prior to the pirate attack with Ghana and Togo navies.Once the pirates attack, communication flowed
through all MOCs and underway assets that allowed accurate tracking and
successful handoff of the vessel.

Observations/Lessons Learned:

-U.S. Africa Command and U.S Naval Forces Africa have worked
with Ghana since 2014 by utilizing a USCG Law Enforcement Detachment aboard a
U.S. Naval vessel to support an embarked Ghana law enforcement detachment.

-Ghana continues to demonstrate capability improvements as
witnessed over these the last years of operations.

-Operational results always vary due to external factors of
weather and maritime activity.

The following are the historical results to date:

-(2014) Four boardings were conducted w/ seven fisheries
violations noted on three of the boardings.

-(2015) Six boardings were conducted w/ six fisheries
violations noted on three of the boardings.

-(2016) Two boarding conducted to date w/ one fisheries
violation noted on one of the boardings.

-Ghana credits AMLEP/OJR with preparing their teams that
supported an independent Ghanaian take down of a pirated vessel in 2015.

-Interagency coordination:

- During the course of operations, interagency coordination
and synchronization resulted in the successful location, tracking, monitoring
and hand off of MT Maximus

-MPRA would have been beneficial for confirming identify of
M/T Maximus

- Communications between French Embassy, U.S. Embassy,
Western Naval Command MOC, Eastern Naval Command MOC, and Spearhead were
outstanding.All Partners Access Network
chat was instrumental to communicating with Ghana Navy for status updates of
Maximus position and their Navy vessels position.

- Spearhead could not identify vessel by name at 3 nautical
miles.

- Handoff to Ghana Navy worked well and Maximus location was
known at all times during its transit through the Ghana EEZ.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

PORT VICTORIA, Seychelles (NNS) -- U.S. Naval War College
(NWC) faculty participated in exercise Cutlass Express 2016, developing an exercise
for the event designed to help African nations and stakeholders cooperate in
their maritime environment.

U.S. 6th Fleet has operated Cutlass Express for five years
and the exercise is designed to improve regional cooperation, maritime domain
awareness, and information-sharing practices to increase capabilities of East
African and Indian Ocean nations to counter sea-based illicit activity.

NWC faculty took part in the senior leader engagement
portion of the exercise that involved high-level decision makers and leaders
from the 17 nations, as well as several international organizations.

At the conclusion of the exercise, senior leaders took part
in a NWC war game designed to work through how affected countries would deal
with the various threats.

"Cutlass Express has always been a maritime exercise
that was to promote tactical and operational cooperation among the
navies," said Jeff Landsman, associate professor of war gaming at NWC.
"This is the first time where they had Naval War College come in and do a
war game. We had the countries go through situations that had elements of
terrorism, poaching, criminal elements and corruption, and we'll see if the
answers they came up with hold water. With so many nations bordering the area,
cooperation is important to the region's stability."

Landsman said the war game stressed the ability of African
nations to cooperate.

"One of the things we are trying to do is to
regionalize or to allow national maritime operational centers to start to
coordinate more," he said. "And it is not just ships and helicopters,
but it now involves directing those ships across various nations."

Rear Adm. Thomas Reck, vice commander of U.S. 6th Fleet,
stressed that the expertise brought by NWC was a welcome addition to Cutlass
Express.

"By facilitating strategic thinking in a collaborative
and academic setting linked to Cutlass Express, this seminar provided by the
Naval War College helps facilitate strategy development as well as build
further links of cooperation within the region," he said.

The war game was also designed to help participants broaden
their problem-solving skills in a maritime environment and ability to develop a
course of action that supports strategic priorities and objectives.

Larry McCabe, associate professor of national security
affairs at NWC, said the task of translating strategy into capabilities is
difficult in some regions that have not traditionally done that.

"That connection between how strategies impact
capabilities isn't always there in many countries around the world,"
McCabe said.

"A major goal of Cutlass Express 16, as an ongoing
exercise, is to increase interoperability amongst maritime security
stakeholders in the East Africa region," said Capt. Scott Ruston, the
exercise director for Cutlass Express 2016. "By bringing senior leaders
together, we unite a strategic-level interoperability with tactical-level
operations at sea. This makes Cutlass Express a more comprehensive
exercise."

Cutlass Express is one of four regional Express Series
exercises facilitated by U.S. Naval Forces Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet that focus on
increasing interagency capabilities in deterring counter-piracy,
counter-illicit trafficking, and other maritime threats in the waters off East
Africa.

"Cutlass Express is an exercise that works with partner
nations near the Horn of Africa, and some interests outside the region, to
build and maintain maritime regional coordination that the countries could not
achieve as individually," added Landsman.

While aboard McCampbell, CNO had lunch with junior officers
and discussed various topics. Some of the discussions were related to his
recently released "A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority," a
document that addresses how the Navy will adapt to changes in the security environment
and continue to fulfill its mission.

CNO had an all-hands call with McCampbell Sailors where he
answered several questions before his departure.

McCampbell arrived in India, Feb. 4, to participate in IFR
2016, which is an international military exercise hosted by the Indian Navy to
help enhance mutual trust and confidence with navies around the world. Through
Feb. 8, more than 50 countries participated in the event.

Since Feb. 4, Sailors assigned to the McCampbell and
Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54) participated in
various events of the IFR 2016 such as the opening ceremony, fleet review, and
fly-by.

Antietam and McCampbell are forward deployed to Yokosuka,
Japan, and are currently on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of operations in
support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.